Many hundreds of spot welding tips, usually made of copper or a selected alloy, are used in manufacturing operations in the automotive and other industries. These tips are used frequently in production lines and in automatic machinery where many of the tips are not under the immediate surveillance of an operator. The tips must be cooled to operate properly and to prolong their life and this cooling is accomplished by directing a flow of coolant, usually water, into the interior of a tip where the flow is reversed to exit the tip. The tip is fitted to the welding tool by means of a taper fit.
The welding tips are subject to breakthrough by wear and erosion and also to loss by failure of the taper fit. With the usual coolant system, tip loss means that coolant will spray out over the machine and the floor until the flow is interrupted manually. It is an object of the present invention to provide a control valve for each tip or for a series of tips so that any line breakage in the system or any malfunction in a particular tip will result in immediate shut down of the coolant flow. An operator can then isolate the problem and replace a coolant conduit or a welding tip and restore the machine operation promptly.
Objects and features of the invention will be set forth in the following description and claims in which the principles of the invention are set forth together with details to enable persons skilled in the art to practice the invention, all in connection with the best mode presently contemplated for the invention.